Blue Ridge Pride hosted the annual Pride Festival on Saturday, Oct. 4, in Pack Square. The event was part of four days of Pride activities that included the Miss Blue Ridge Pride Pageant and a performance by comedian Jennie McNulty.

Blue Ridge Pride’s Yvonne Cook-Riley estimates that 35-40 percent of attendees at Pack Square Park for the organization’s festival on Saturday, Oct. 4, will be straight allies. That is, people who identify as heterosexual but back their lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning friends and family. What accounts for such strong support of […]

As hopes of a progressive North Carolina crumble into ruin, there is renewed interest in an LGBT community center in the city that, two years ago, a state senator dubbed “the cesspool of sin” because of its domestic-partner registry.

With rainbow pride flags tied to light posts and booths set up all over Pack Square Park, the Blue Ridge Pride festival returned for its third year to celebrate the LGBTQ community. Hundreds showed up for the event that lasted from noon-6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 1.

Yesterday, it looked like tonight’s Asheville City Council meeting would see a conflict over a proclamationrecognizing the Blue Ridge Pride festival. This afternoon, however, an announcement from Blue Ridge Pride claims Mayor Terry Bellamy has agreed to sign a proclamation recognizing the event.

An e-mail exchange released by Asheville City Council member Bill Russell reveals new details about how a proclamation recognizing the Oct. 1 Blue Ridge Pride festival made it onto Council’s agenda for its Sept. 27 meeting. In the exchange, Mayor Terry Bellamy, who has not given the festival a standard mayoral proclamation, notes that she will place it on the new business portion of the agenda. Russell says he hoped for a standard proclamation instead of a contentious vote.

City proclamations aren’t typically a point of controversy, but the Asheville City Council meeting tomorrow, Sept. 27, will see an exception. A proclamation recognizing the Blue Ridge Pride festival is on the New Business portion of the agenda, as Mayor Terry Bellamy refused to endorse it.